Abel Méndez, Director of the PHL @ UPR Arecibo

Professor Abel Méndez is a planetary astrobiologist and NASA MIRS Fellow at the University of Puerto Rico at Arecibo. He is also the Director of the Planetary Habitability Laboratory, a scientific and education laboratory dedicated to studies of the habitability of Earth, the Solar System, and extrasolar planets. Prof. Méndez experience includes physics and astrophysics research at Fermilab, NASA Goddard, NASA Ames, and the Arecibo Observatory.

Current research of Prof. Méndez focus on theoretical models of the suitability for life of planetary environments, the characterization and detection of potentially habitable exoplanets, and the observation with the Arecibo Observatory of radio emissions from red dwarf stars.